According to the proponent of a ballot initiative to prohibit the act of surgically removing a male baby’s foreskin, the term “circumcision” is nothing but a euphemism. “Having your foreskin amputated is probably more like it,” said Jena Troutman, a doula and mother of two sons, who initiated the process of petitioning Santa Monica to include the initiative on a future ballot.
In November, San Franciscans will vote on a ballot measure that would outlaw circumcision on boys under the age of 18. Although experts say it is highly unlikely the measure will pass, the mere fact that it reached the ballot, and in such a major city, has caused much concern for Jews and their allies.\n
San Francisco’s Catholic archbishop expressed his opposition to a city ballot initiative that would ban circumcision for minors. Archbishop George Niederauer condemned the initiative in a May 23 letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, his archdiocese’s newspaper reported.
A measure seeking to ban male circumcision will appear on the November ballot in San Francisco. More than 7,700 signatures from city residents on a petition in support of the measure were approved as valid by city officials on Wednesday. At least 7,168 signatures were required, and more than 12,000 were submitted.
A dozen San Francisco Bay Area Jews visited an ongoing protest at a Native American burial site. The Jews, who are affiliated with several congregations and social action groups in Berkeley, Calif., billed Sunday\’s visit as a cultural exchange timed to Mother\’s Day.
The umbrella organization for Jews in Norway is opposing a proposed amendment that would ban ritual circumcision on boys younger than 15. The Mosaic Religious Community, the umbrella for Norway\’s Jewish community and Jewish organizations, has sent a letter to Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Justice Minister Knut Storberget outlining its opposition to the amendment proposed by the country\’s state ombudsman for children, the English-language website News and Views from Norway reported.
A proposal to ban circumcision in San Francisco looks likely for the November ballot. A group opposed to male circumcision told Reuters that it had collected more than enough signatures on petitions to qualify their proposal for the Nov. 8 vote this fall.
Kirk Douglas will be honored at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival this summer. Douglas, 94, is expected to attend the July 23 festival to receive the Freedom of Expression award at a special 50th anniversary showing of “Spartacus.”
Have the courts that have often been tolerant of questionable claims of racial discrimination finally begun to run out of patience? This may be the case. Recently the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals raised eyebrows by issuing a stinging rebuke to civil rights lawyers who brought a lawsuit that claimed their plaintiffs – poor and largely minority public bus riders in the San Francisco Bay Area – had been the victims of discrimination.
Last week’s news that one of the country’s largest Jewish foundations will close in two years, its assets to be divided among the foundations of its founder’s heirs, is shining a spotlight on a major question in the Jewish philanthropic world: How will Jewish philanthropic giving weather the transfer of assets from one generation to the next? The San Francisco-based Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, which has given out about $700 million since it was started by Richard Goldman in 1951, with most of the gifts benefiting environmental, health and Jewish causes, will close at the end of 2012, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
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